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Langeveld Beats Flecha to Win the 2011 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad

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Langeveld Beats Flecha to Win the 2011 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad

Team RaboBank's Sebastian Langeveld of the Netherlands beat Team Sky's Antonio Flecha of Spain in a sprint finish to win the 2011 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, the opening classic on the Belgian cycling calendar.

Team RaboBank's Sebastian Langeveld of the Netherlands beat Team Sky's Antonio Flecha of Spain in a sprint finish to win the 2011 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, the opening classic on the Belgian cycling calendar.

Langeveld broke away early in Saturday's finale and only last year's winner Flecha was able to catch up to him with only 15 of the 203 kilometers to go.

Flecha tried to shake Langeveld off in the final kilometers but it came down to a sprint. In the drizzle and wind, the Dutchman jumped across the line a dozen centimeters (five inches) ahead of Flecha.

The two crossed in 5 hours, 18, minutes, 21 seconds, more than a minute ahead of Mathew Hayman of Australia, who took third place ahead of France's Yoann Offredo and Italy's Luca Paolini.

"I didn't wait for Flecha but when he came back I saw that he didn't have much left in his tank. I knew that he would try to attack. If I could neutralize that attack I would be mentally at an advantage," Langeveld said after crossing the finish line.

"I worked very hard for the victory and I'm going to take my time to enjoy it," Langeveld added with a smile on his lips.

"After such a long and hard race we both did a great sprint at the end but Sebastian was about 10cm faster than me!" Flecha commented after the finish and added "Just after the line he put up his arms to celebrate but I wasn't 100% sure who had won as it was so close."

"I think that was the right moment to start gambling," Flecha explained when asked why he chose to attack with just under 30 km remaining. "It was a nice race again for us (Team Sky) and so nearly another victory."

"There wasn't much in it with Juan (Antonio Flecha), it was only a few centimeters" third place finisher and teammate Matthew Hayman commented and added "He was riding really well today and the whole team was good. But Langeveld has been knocking on the door for many years and is an old team mate of both of ours at Rabobank. If we couldn't win, it was nice to see him win."

When asked about the consequences of riding the race without race radios because of the new radio ban rule from the UCI Hayman said "We worked pretty well without them. Juan and I have been in a team for many years now so we didn't even need to talk."

Langeveld secured the 10th victory for Rabobank, the most successful team so far this season.